Poop Scoop Wars

Monday, April 24^th, 2023 – Safeway

The temperature this morning was again well into the forties and with only a slight sprinkle here and there. “They” claim by the end of the week we will be in the mid-fifties in the morning with highs in the mid-seventies. We’ve heard this before.

We’ll see.

Anyway, we removed a roadkill squirrel from the road but found some money.

A quarter near in the gutter near the Shell station. Off to a good start.

We spotted this while on an errand in the car.

Today, we picked it up. It is an ice/seed/fertilizer spreader, seventeen bucks on Amazon. “Okay, Sam. Here is the fertilizer spreader and over there is the fertilizer. We’ll have a McDonalds Happy Meal for you at noon, but you need to be finished by sunset.”

“Sorry, the dinner is on your own nickel.”

Someone had some refreshments.

A cup of Fireball Whiskey, or at least Fireball Whiskey bottles. So did they open the bottles and empty them into the cup or is the cup just the trash cup? We’ll give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this was a high-class social event and they drank straight from the bottles.

Well, obviously Logan drank from the bottle.

Or bag. It was Logan’s breast milk. Well, not Logan’s breast milk, we mean Logan’s mother’s breast milk. Well, it could have been some other mother’s breast milk provided for Logan. Okay, we may be milking this dry, but we wanted to keep you abreast of the situation.

Tuesday, April 25^th, 2023 – Park-and-Ride

Whoa! This is like Déjà vu all over again. Like yesterday, the temperature was in the mid forties but with no rain. We removed a roadkill squirrel and found more money.

Maybe every time we find a dead squirrel, we find money. We’ll need to keep an eye on this. We may need to start carrying a pellet gun.

In the gutter, we found a discarded umbrella.

The fools. They believed the weather forecast!

Along 112^th Ave NE, we found some leather welding gloves.

Fifteen bucks on Amazon. They were in very good condition. Never mind the wet stain, that was our fault. We spilled beer on them. No, we were not drinking beer at 5:30 in the morning, we picked up a can that still had some beer in it. Really.

Uh-oh. The pooper scooper wars have started. Last week we saw signs for the Scoop Troop which we have never heard of before. Today, the Pet Poo Clean Up.

As we found last week, the Scoop Troop started in Spokane, Washington and has spread to the Seattle area. This new Pet Poo entry looked like a copy-cat startup. However, it appears to be a franchise of Pet Butler, a well-established national franchise. So, these new signs are actually a counterattack. We just don’t want to be around when the ground war starts, and the ammunition starts flying.

This one was a new one on us.

Mad Dragon Raging Kiwi Strawberry. It states that it is “Premium Orange Wine with Natural Flavors and Certified Colors.” First of all, it appears to be made from oranges, but the flavor is kiwi and strawberry. So, the kiwi and strawberry must be in the natural flavors. Why not just say “with kiwi and strawberry?” Or perhaps they are not really natural? And we don’t even want to know what “certified colors” means.

But wait, there’s more. There is an embossed inscription on the bottle “Tah-may air bu-ill-yah Dracon” that appears to be the phonetic version of an Irish-Gaelic saying.

One source stated that it means “Mad Dragon.” However, the translation is not that clear. For example, Google Translate give the definition, “I am on a dragon blow.” Don’t ask us, we just report this stuff.

And marginally related, we came across this link. “Man with Mad Dragons in pants breathes no fire, but is busted in Fort Pierce.” The title is worth the read.

Wednesday, April 26^th, 2023 – Safeway and 100th Ave NE

This was another nice walking day with improving weather. People are saying that Spring has sprung, but we’re not buying it. We’re not putting our snow shovel away yet.

Monday, we tossed a roadkill squirrel and found a quarter.

Tuesday, we tossed a roadkill squirrel and found a dime.

Today, we found neither a squirrel nor any money. We hope to find several dead squirrels the rest of the week.

Really?

Another batch of Logan’s mother’s milk, this one was full. We don’t know what is going on here, but as promised, we will keep you informed of the situation. Bet you expected other wording.

Ben & Jerry’s is going high end.

No more plastic spoons for them. Expect a price increase soon.

Another nice pair of scissors.

We found them near a new dentist office.

Maybe they were going to use them for the ribbon cutting ceremony. A better use would be to cut down that gaudy sign.

Thursday, April 27^th, 2023 – 160th to 124th Street

Today we broke 50°F (10.0°C) for the first time in a long time. We removed a layer of our winter gear and it felt fine. We didn’t find any money but found a squirrel, which blows our squirrel=money theory. But it was pretty flat, and it may not have been a squirrel, or there may not have been enough squirrel left. We’ll see what the rest of the week brings.

We did find a tool, though.

At first, we were not quite sure what it was, but we turned it over and, after some discussion, determined it was a funnel. But how do you pour anything in the small hole?

We found three wheel/hub covers today.

But one was in pieces having been run over and smashed into several pieces. Remember when car parts used to dent and bend, not shatter? “Daddy, why did they use to call it an accident a fender-bender?” “Well, son, long ago cars were made primarily of metals. Today the correct term today is a shatter-scatter.”

On the 116^th Ave NE that parallels the 160^th offramp, we found more 14-Hands wine cans.

Not as many as we used to find, but a respectable showing for a week’s littering.

On the freeway northbound on ramp, we found a lost lock.

Normally these are recycled because we don’t have a key, but this is a combination lock that, since it is open, we should be able to change the combination. We will see.

Also, on the onramp, we saw something in the crosswalk. After waiting for a break in traffic, we found it was a large nail.

You are welcome.

We did come across a half-ton pickup.

Scratch that, it was a half of a one-ton pickup.

And this does not bode well.

A marriage announcement for Randy and Maurya. Perhaps it was sent to an ex-lover?

Friday, April 28^th, 2023 – 100th Ave NE

This morning was much like yesterday and they are predicting temperatures near 80°F (26.7°C) later in the day. We shall see. We did not find a roadkill squirrel today but did find a rabbit, and also found, separately, two nickels.

That kind of blows our theory about squirrels and money. The physics of TrashWalking is daunting.

We did see another roadkill rabbit yesterday while running an errand. However, someone or something must of removed it. There was a remaining stain on the road and this.

A rabbit’s scut. We found this tidbit. “Another interesting thing that deer and rabbits share is a special name for their tails. That short, erect tuft of fur on their backsides is called a scut. This word dates back at least 400 years, but it’s one you just don’t hear anymore (although it is in lots of dictionaries).” And, of course, our blog. Interesting, the article is titled “The Scuttlebutt on Rabbits and Deer.” It’s a fitting title, butt we digress on the subject of scuts. And that’s the scuttlebutt.

This is a blast from the past. We picked up a Peace Corps bag.

It was complete with Peace Corps brochures. We remember it being a big thing in the sixties and we even, briefly, fantasized about joining like many others, but we didn’t. We were not aware it was still active, but we are not considering joining up. We are not considering joining up with the War Corps either. Been there, done that.

We are finding less trash on Norway Hill.

This happens every year. The weeds grow up on the roadside and the trash gets buried. Then, once or twice during the summer, the city mows everything down mincing the cans in the process. We tediously pick up the cans, but we only count the ones that have the pop tab attached. Anyway, the Mike’s Hard Lemonade can count is dropping by the week. Not “dropping” like being dropped out the window, but dropping like we cannot see them because of the weeds. Never mind, let’s just drop the subject.

It’s Friday, time to check out Chuck’s vest pocket.

It’s pretty sparse. Let’s start on the right. First, two sunglass earpieces, not matching. A hitch pin clip; no sign of the hitch pin, though. One-and-a-half ballpoint pens. A very colorful hair scrunchie and a BMW emblem in very good condition and another part of an emblem, “4”, in very bad condition.

Then, a Chick-Fil-A card good for a free sandwich at a specific store in Bellevue. That is not very convenient for us but it’s a free sandwich. But it expired about a year ago. It just goes to show, there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

A post-it note with “Gingham Gorgeous” written on it. It didn’t take long to find it was a line of scented products including perfumes, hand lotions, body washes, etc. from Bath and Body Works. We smelled the post-it note and it didn’t smell very good. Then again, it has been in Chuck’s pocket for a few days and who-knows-where before he picked it up.

Oh, Baby.

Will these seeds take nine months to bloom too?

Saturday, April 29^th, 2023 – Riverside Drive

Today was another beautiful day to walk with a temperature of 55°F (12.8°C) and by the time we had arrived home, four hours later the temperature had reached 69°F (20.6°C). We removed a fat rat from the road and found another twenty-six cents.

A quarter along Riverside Drive and the penny at the park-and-ride. Careless parkers. We have not seen a quarter lose the nickel plating, but we’re going to count it anyway.

Also at the Bothell parking lot, someone tossed some unused picture frames.

Twenty bucks apiece at Michaels. We will take them to Goodwill.

At the Sammamish River Park, another rubber ducky.

No, it wasn’t swimming, it was on dry ground. This makes at least six in our collection, all from the same factory in China. They probably make tons of these then drop them in the sea and let the currents float them to the US.

A surprise visit from the McLitterers.

They always toss out the same thing. Two clean pancake platters, two teacups and bags, and unused utensils and condiments. The only thing that has changed is that evidently McDonalds does not give out plastic bags anymore. We rarely find these anymore, but at the height of their littering, we were picking up two or three a week.

We came across some beer cans near the Jackson’s gas station.

We find a lot of beer cans, but two of these were unopened. It was hot out, but it was a bit early for us. We did bring them home though. Well, we brought all of them home, but we didn’t recycle the full ones.

We thought this might be interesting. Something wrapped in a rubber glove.

But when we unwrapped it, it was only a cigarette package. And it was empty.

We found a module for a Elenco Snap Circuit kit.

It is apparently part of a kit, but we did find some hits on eBay for about ten bucks. It looks to be in good condition, so if anybody has one of these kits, we’ll let this one go for five bucks. No shipping. Let us know.

Finally, we found this on Brickyard Road.

A drone that appears to have been hit by a car. It reminds us of the opening credits to Men in Black.

The body is gone and the battery was run over, but the drone looks to be in good condition. We can’t tell what the brand is, but the motors are iFlight Xing 2205.

These are sixty-five bucks on Amazon for a set of four. They look to be in good condition, so if anybody has one of these drones…

That wraps up our walking week. Our inventory this week:

• 71 Cents the hard way.
  
• 5 Mike’s Hard Lemonade cans. Down yet again.
  
• 5 Roadkill and an extra scut.
  
• 3 Balls.
  
• 2 Breast milks. Two is a good number to have.
  
• 1 Raging Dragon Kiwi Strawberry.
  
• 1/2 One ton truck.
  
• 1 FM Transceiver.
  
• 1 Drone, good for parts.
  

Have a great week and remember, don’t put a mad dragon in your pants.